Change from Reality
by MidnightFantasies
Summary: My take on the season finale if Mako had his bending taken away, too.


**AN: I apologize for not posting any new fanfics these past few days, but I am back now. And I have more knowledge of the avatar series (I didn't know much because I watched bits and pieces of the first series) so my fanfics should be better now.**

**Okay, so I was thinking, what if Korra hadn't air bent in time to save Mako from getting his bending taken away. Not much of a change from the actual season finale. **

**Enjoy. ^^**

**x.x.x**

Korra felt her whole body go weak as the masked man used his secret blood bending skill to remove her bending. He released her and she fell limply onto the cold floor, feeling too weak to move. It took her a few moments to regain even the tiniest bit of strength back. She tried to swing at him, hoping to the spirits that she would still be able to throw a hot flame at him, but nothing came out and she fell back to the floor.

Amon smiled under his mask at the powerless Avatar's struggle. Finally, she was powerless and now he would be able to achieve his goal of eliminating bending from the world. He had already 'cleansed' plenty of benders of their 'impurity', and now that their Avatar was powerless, he could now see his goal right in front of him. He raised his foot to take a step towards the struggling fire bender when he heard the voice of his second in command.

The Lieutenant grew suspicious of Amon when Korra had revealed the truth about him at his Equalist rally, half believing what the girl was saying about him being a water bender and a blood bender. However, because of what he had just witnessed, he now knew that she was not lying. "Amon, what the Avatar said is true, isn't it? I just saw you blood bend her." He frowned, removing his own mask from his face and dropping it to the floor, before he stomped on it, hard enough to break it. "You traitor!" He reached behind him, pulling out his electric poles, ready to attack Amon. "I dedicated my life to you!" He ran at the masked man, ready to activate the shock poles.

The action was quickly proved as a useless attempted when Amon's own eyes widened and he raised his hand, using his skill on his second in command. "You served me well, Lieutenant." Amon flicked his wrist and through the black haired man into a large pile of wooden poles.

The Equalist leader turned around, walking past the weakened Avatar to the fire bender, ready to take his bending away as well.

Mako had been fighting against Amon's blood bending the whole time, feeling it weaken on him when he had turned his attention onto the Lieutenant. Mako put all his concentration on breaking free from the blood bender's hold, and used his lightning bending ability, the white lightning striking the man in the chest and sending him across the room against some wooden boards. Now free, Mako stood up, taking a deep breath of relief. He shot two fire balls against the boards so that they fell in front of Amon, hopefully being able to slow him down while he got Korra out of the arena.

The fire bender quickly ran over to the weak Avatar, picking her up in his arms and carrying he out of the large room and into the hall way. Frantically, he looked over his shoulder as he ran, making sure the blood bender was not right behind them.

Korra weakly turned her head to look up at Mako, even as she spoke to him, her words were weak. "Mako… my bending…"

"Everything's going to be okay," he told her as he continued to run down the long hallway. "We just have to get out of here-!"

His body acted on its own and suddenly fell forward. Korra fell out of his arms and landed a few feet away from him, momentarily knocked unconscious. He wanted to pick her up and keep running. He wanted to get her out of this place, and he definitely wanted to get her away from Amon, but his body was no longer in control. Mako felt his body be jerked backwards and slammed into the walls and the roof of the hall way. He recognized it as Amon's blood bending and feeling of fear quickly grew inside of him.

"I'm impressed. No one has ever gotten the better of me like that," the masked man began as he stepped forward to the fire bender who looked at him in fear. "It almost seems wrong to take the bending away from someone so talented. Almost."

Korra slowly opened her eyes to look at the scene in front of her. Her sapphire eyes widened in horror as Amon's thumb touched Mako's forehead and he stole the fire bender's bending. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion now. She watched as the now former fire bender dropped to the floor, weakly like she had a few minutes ago and she stood up, anger at her not being able to have helped him taking over and she took another swing at the Equalist, only half expecting to have any result. Korra was shocked to look up and now see Amon about fifteen feet from where he was standing before.

His eyes widened from behind the mask at the Avatar in both surprise and confusion. "Impossible."

Korra stood leaning against a wall, still registering what she had just done. She looked down at her hand. "I… can air bend?" She stood tall, standing straight and proud, looking straight at Amon, no longer afraid and shouting it to the world. "I can air bend!"

Korra ran at Amon, firing blast of air at him, each one sending his farther and farther away from her and Mako, who was slowly starting to stand and watched the water tribe girl air bent against their enemy. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of the fight, that Korra seemed to be winning. She used the air to slam Amon into the small amount of wall below the window, ready to use her new found ability against him over and over again.

The masked man did the only thing that he could think of to help him win this fight, and that was to blood bend the Avatar once again, in the hopes of taking away her air bending powers like the rest of the element.

Korra struggled against the blood bender's grip, but she let her emotions over take her again. "No… you… don't!" She kicked at him, though they were a far distance a part, and she kicked a strong gust of wind at him. This sent Amon out the window, looking to be falling in slow motion as his mask untied itself from his face, once again feeling the 'scar' that a fire bender had given him years ago.

Korra felt herself go weak again, and struggled to keep herself standing and leaned against the wall of the hallway. Mako slowly walked up behind her, and he helped her, though he felt very weak himself and they walked to the window just in time to see water spiral out of Yue Bay, and at the top of it was Amon, the burn mark now completely vanished from his face.

His followers looked at him in shock.

"He's water bending!"

"He is a bender!"

"The scar is fake!"

"The Avatar was telling the truth!"

Amon looked at his followers as the stared at him. As quickly as his anti-bending revolution has begun, it had now come to an end. With one final look at the Avatar, he released his water bending powers, the spiral of water falling and he disappeared beneath the water.

The two of them returned to the island where they were reunited with the rest of their team. Bolin quickly greeted his brother with a tight hug, while Mako's ex-girlfriend, Asami, didn't do anything as she was still a bit angry at Mako for him keeping his true feelings for the Avatar a secret from her. Jinora, Ikki and Meelo greeted their companions with hugs as well. The two of them put of fake smiles at their reunion with everyone.

Bolin had always been able to tell when his brother was lying about something. "Big bro, what's wrong?"

Almost immediately, their false happiness disappeared. Korra looked down, watching the water from the corner of her eye. Mako sighed, looking at the rest of the group that was now looking at him and Korra, anxiously wanting to know what had went wrong when they were at the arena battling Amon. The former fire bender spoke quietly. "He got us. He took our bending."

Everyone was shocked by his words. One of them having their bending taken away, they could understand, but both of them having their bending taken away seemed like a nearly impossible thing to believe.

Asami stepped forward. "Then how did you two defeat Amon?"

Korra was the one to answer. "I air bent… and knocked him through a window… then he disappeared."

Chief Lin Beifong made her way over to the small teenagers, feeling sympathy towards Mako and Korra since she had also had her bending taken away by Amon. She hugged the two of them. "I can't believe Amon got you, too."

"But, hey," Bolin began. "At least you unlocked your air bending."

Mako sighed and looked over at his younger brother. "Bro, not the time."

"Right," the earth bender said as he took a few steps away from them. "I'll just stand over here. In silence." Bolin covered his moth with his hand.

The group looked out at the bay. Tenzin walked over to his air bending student. He, too, was feeling sympathy for those who had lost their bending in the war, but he was also proud of Korra for her actions against the enemy. "You saved Republic City." He said to her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

Korra looked down, watching the water of the bay. "But Amon got away." She closed her eyes, putting her hand over her teacher's.

Tenzin had thought of his mother, who was an amazing healer, hoping that she would be able to their bending, though Mako didn't really care much for his lost fire bending at the moment. He was too worried about Korra to worry about anything else. He, and the rest of the group, including Korra's parents sat in a waiting room.

The door opened, and an elderly Katara stepped out, her face was disappointed. Everyone stood up, hoping that she had been able to restore the Avatar's bending. The healer sighed before she began to speak. "I tried everything I could, but… I cannot restore Korra's bending."

Lin spoke first. She and Korra did not have the best relationship when the young Avatar had first moved to Republic City because Korra had caused a lot of property damage in the city, but after working together in the war, they had developed a friendship. "But, you're the best healer in the world. You have to be able to do something."

Katara looked at her deceased friend's daughter. "Korra can still air bend, but her connection to the other elements has been severed."

The room fell silent at the water bender's words. The long silence was broken her the sound of Korra opening up the door and stepping out of the room she was just in. She looked up at everyone, feeling as if she had failed them as the avatar by having her bending taken away.

Tenzin looked at his student. "It's going to be alright, Korra."

"No, it's not."

Korra didn't say anything else, instead she walked towards the door, pulling her navy parka off the hook as she walked out, putting the warm clothing over her. She wanted to get away from everyone. She needed to be alone and let everything sink in. She had just reached her polar bear dog, Naga, when she heard Mako's voice calling for her and his foot steps coming towards her. "Go away, Mako."

Mako sighed, expecting that reaction from her, still he would not do as she had told him to. He needed to talk to her.

"I'm not the Avatar anymore," She said quietly, adjusting the saddle on Naga's back. "Just… leave me alone. I'm pretty much useless now." The rest of her words were barely audible, but just enough for Mako to hear them. "I couldn't even save your bending."

The words coming from Korra's mouth made his heart sink. He never wanted for her to feel useless and weak, seeing her in the state, was torture to him, and he didn't know why she made him feel this was until only recently when she had been captured. This entire time he had treated her as a friend, as a team mate, but no… she was more than that.

"I don't care if you're the Avatar or not, and please, stop beating yourself up about my bending being taken away, too. I don't care about that, Korra, not right now." As he went on, he felt his heart beat speed up as he continued to talk to the water tribe girl in front of him. "Look, when Tarrlock took you, I was losing my mind at the thought of never seeing you again, I realized…" He trailed off there, pausing in midsentence to look Korra in her blue eyes and gently cupped her right cheek with his left hand. "I love you, Korra."

Korra felt her heart skipped a beat at his confession, trying her best to hold back the blush that was threatening to appear on her cheeks and she lightly touched the hand that he had placed over her cheeks. Korra couldn't bare to see him now, not after not being able to save him, and he eyes sadden. "I can't." She quickly got away from him, and hopped onto her pet's back and rode the polar bear dog out of the compound that she had spent most of her life in.

Tenzin walked up next to Mako, also watching Korra ride out on her pet. "You need to be patient with her. It will take her time to accept what has happened."

Mako would not just let her go. He clenched his fist and ran after her, after the girl he was so in love with. He knew she was far ahead enough to where he couldn't see he, so he followed the tracked from Naga.

Korra stopped Naga on an icy cliff, and she walked over to the edge and stared down at the freezing cold water. A single tear fell down her cheek and off her chin, falling down to join the rest of the water. That was went Korra broke down. She started crying, sitting in the snow and hugging her knees to her chest. She had worked so hard to master water, earth and fire, and in one second, all her hard work had gone to waste. She felt useless as the Avatar for allowing her bending to be taken away, making her nearly powerless for any future enemies that she were to encounter.

She heard foot steps in the snow behind her and wiped away her tears the best she could, but failed at keeping them away. "Not now, Tenzin. I just wanted to be alone."

A familiar, yet unfamiliar voice spoke instead of her air bending teacher. It was a voice she had only heard in visions. "But you called me here."

Korra showed a slight smiled at the presence of the Avatar before her. "Aang."

"You have finally connected with your spiritual self," the spirit said to her, looking proud of her newest accomplishment.

"How?" Korra was unsure of what he meant by this.

"When we are at our lowest points, we are open to the greatest change."

Behind Aang, were the spirits of her past lives, all of their eyes were glowing white. Aang's spirit approached her, placing his thumb against her forehead and his other thumb in between her collar bones. Korra felt power being returned to her, keeping her eyes closed even as the spirits of her past lives disappeared. Korra's eyes snapped open, her normal sapphire eyes were replaced with the white eyes that told that she was in the Avatar state. Air lifted her body upward and her arms spread out as her connection to the elements returned to her. Once Korra was out of the Avatar state, she realized what had happened. Her ability to bend all four of the elements was back, and now with energy bending, she would be able to return the bending of those who had lost their in the revolution.

She turned around, smiling when she saw Mako standing by Naga. He, too, was smiling. He walked towards her as she ran to him and embracing him tightly in a hug. She looked up at him, placing her tanned hand on his pale cheek, smiling lovingly at him. "I love you, too."

Her hands moved to the back of his head as she pulled him into a warm kiss. He felt his hand on her back and they put all of their love for each other into the kiss. Neither of them wanted to let each other go now that they had finally confessed their love for each other, but Korra had a few things to do first, so she was the first to pull away from their love struck kiss. "Mako?"

He looked down at his love. "Yes?"

Korra did the same thing that Aang's spirit had did to her. She placed her thumbs against his forehead and between his collar bones. She closed her eyes, focusing on energy bending. Her eyes opened themselves, once again in the white color of the Avatar state. Mako watched her, feeling power growing in his body as she returned to normal.

He held out his hand, and a small flame appeared in his hand. The fire bender smiled, tackling Korra into the snow and kissing her repeatedly as a thank you.

Now Korra would be able to use her new ability of energy bending to restore the bending to those who had lost their in the anti-bending revolution. There were a lot who fell victim to Amon's blood bending and it would take a while to finish, but it would all be worth it, because now she was coming back. As a fully trained Avatar.

**x.x.x**

**AN: I'm sorry if the ending is a little rushed, but it is 4 am and I'm tired. Please don't flame this. This is just what I think the finale would have been like if Mako had gotten his bending taken away, too.**


End file.
